Querying and Updating with SPARQL 1.1

"I buy it and give it away at every course I teach on the semantic web. It is a well-written and entirely practical way into this world. You can explore a significant portion of the concepts without having to set anything up. I have seen no better way to get started."

"It's excellent—very well organized and written, a completely painless read. I not only feel like I understand SPARQL now, but I have a much better idea why RDF is useful (I was a little skeptical before!)."

"It comprehensively leads one through the why and wherefore of SPARQL and provides a thorough grounding in the vocabulary and practice of employing SPARQL to start to benefit from the growing world of Linked Data."

"I had always know that SPARQL would be similar to SQL due to the fact that they are both query languages, but I did not realize how powerful SPARQL queries could be and all the great functions that are provided in the language until reading Bob DuCharme book Learning SPARQL."

"This is a good book for developers who know how to program, ideally know SQL, and who want to find out about SPARQL. It has plenty of well-constructed examples, and should get you well on the way to being able to use SPARQL in your apps."

The W3C standard query language SPARQL is letting people access a
growing collection of public and private data. Whether this data
is part of a semantic web project or a combination of data from
two relational databases on different platforms, SPARQL
is making it easier to access this data using both open source
and commercial software. "Learning SPARQL" teaches you how to use SPARQL 1.1 by starting you off with simple queries that demonstrate the language's query-by-example approach and then taking you through all the key features of the SPARQL 1.1 query and update languages. All example code is provided for you to run yourself with free software, and the book's table of contents and detailed index lets you use it as a reference book long after you've finished working through its examples.

news

May 14: Once again, inspired by yet another silly claim that "No one in industry is using SPARQL," I recently pointed someone at a list of very well-known companies who have listed SPARQL under "skills" in job listings: NBC, Microsoft, Boeing, Goldman Sachs, Vodafone, Turner Broadcasting, and many more. Follow @LearningSPARQL on Twitter for occasional news about big-name organizations looking for people who know SPARQL. (Nine days ago: Northrup Grumman.)

July 26: The ebook and print editions of "Learning SPARQL" are now available from O'Reilly, and print editions are available from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, maybe some more Amazons, and Barnes and Noble. (Borders says that it's on backorder, but I wouldn't hold your breath for that.)

July 15: The ebook version of "Learning SPARQL" is now available on the O'Reilly page! The print edition is scheduled to be available July 19th. Subscribe to the @LearningSPARQL twitter feed to stay updated on the book and on other SPARQL news.